This study aimed to contribute to the development of policy options in relation to the clarification of carbon rights, and the elaboration and enhancement of safeguard policies and benefit-sharing mechanisms. It also provides an overview of REDD-plus and international law and their provisions on safeguarding indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights. A cross-country analysis presents relevant international experiences of how carbon rights can be integrated into national legal frameworks. The study then examines the particular Philippine legal context, provisions relating to safeguards, tenure instruments and their relation to carbon rights, and considers conceptual and practical dimensions of benefit-sharing mechanisms. Finally, the study provides key recommendations for the development of guidance on carbon rights in the Philippines.

Who owns the carbon in the Philippine forests? A study on clarifying forest carbon rights for REDD-plus in the Philippines Volume II: Case studies

This study summarizes the four extensive case studies that examine the socio-economic, cultural and political implications of carbon rights and carbon rights contracts on indigenous peoples and local communities, and that provide key insights for the clarification of safeguards and carbon rights in the Philippines, which enrich the findings and recommendations made in Volume I.

This paper briefly describes relevant policy documents that serve as a basis for developing a common approach such as the UNFCCC agreements, guidance provided by three global REDD+-related initiatives as well as relevant strategy papers of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It also highlights the full spectrum of approaches and activities on REDD+ and especially safeguards implementation.

The study, which included 797 randomly chosen household respondents in the five pilot REDD+ sites in Southern Leyte, was conducted to establish a socio-economic baseline to describe the pre-project socio-economic conditions at the REDD+ pilot project sites and non-REDD+ sites or control sites. The survey was conducted from May 11, 2011 to June 29, 2011 in 71 REDD+ pilot barangays and 21 non-REDD+ barangays in Bontoc, Sogod, Tomas Oppus, Silago and Maasin City, Southern Leyte.

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—Storms carrying winds of at least 300 kph, like Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” are likely to be “the norm for the Philippines” as a result of climate change, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said, echoing findings made by a panel of climate experts submitted to the United Nations.

MANILA - Some leaders of nongovernmental organizations in the Philippines advancing environmental causes find the government's climate change mitigation and adaption programs wanting even after the country suffered massive devastation from the wrath of super typhoon "Yolanda" (Haiyan) five months ago.